THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994 TAG: 9406010143
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940603 LENGTH: Medium
Because of that short mind-jaunt, the same foursome will take a real flight to Ann Arbor, Mich., in June.
{REST} Jennifer Dozier, Michelle Piccioni, Matthew Sachs and Natalie Sidner competed in and won in the State Future Problem Solving Bowl held recently in Norfolk.
The bowl is one aspect of a year-long program based on a business model in problem solving developed in the 1950s. Participants follow a multi-step process to help students learn how to think and find logical solutions to future scientific and social scenarios.
The Kempsville students' problem was a hypothetical situation involving a space colony based on Earth's moon in the year 2080. Kempsville's team became state champion in the intermediate team competition against 350 students on teams from across the state.
Their coach and former teacher at Kempsville Middle School, Carolyn Stamm, will go with them next month to the International Future Problem Solving Competition at the University of Michigan. Another team Stamm coaches, the Playground Patrol of 38 sixth-graders at Kempsville Middle School, also will travel to the Michigan competition as winners in the state Community Problem Solving category.
International competition involves students from across the United States, eight Canadian provinces and 16 foreign countries.
In Michigan, the older group will have to solve a hypothetical problem dealing with disease control. Stamm is confident they'll do well in the thinking exercise.
``They just have a real talent,'' she said. ``They're super students and they're focused. This is a mental challenge for them and they really enjoy it.''
Problems the students solve exercise their rational thinking skills, encourage research, creativity, originality, elaboration and inventiveness.
``One of the real points of this program is teamwork,'' said Dan Baise, a gifted education specialist with Norfolk Public Schools at the Stuart Gifted Center. ``Gifted students often have trouble working together with others.''
That's not true with this group. ``Working together has gotten easier during this past school year,'' said Natalie Sidner, a member of the ninth-grade team. ``It's a complicated relationship, but we work things out and have gotten faster as we work.''
Competition in the older grades requires teams to cooperate while working under deadline pressure. Research is done ahead of time as students try to anticipate what their particular problem will be. They go into the match armed only with what they know, pencils, pens, paper, dictionary and thesaurus.
In Michigan, the younger team will be asked to solve a specific problem in the Detroit area.
In addition to going to Michigan, the group of sixth-graders also won the National Award of Merit from Scholastic News Magazine Kids Care Contest. The contest recognizes year-long volunteer projects by school children.
The Playground Patrol spoke to city and state officials to urge the passing of local and state ordinances to monitor playground safety. They held a Playground Safety Week for first-graders at Providence Elementary and an assembly at Kempsville Meadows Elementary for primary students.
by CNB